Futures Higher on Google, Eurozone Hopes

Stock index futures rose on Friday, shrugging off a credit rating downgrade of Spain, propelled by strong earnings from Google Inc. and hopes the Eurozone will continue progress toward a solution to its debt crisis.

Google's shares gained 7 percent to $559 after its results late on Thursday trounced Wall Street expectations, helped by strong advertising sales and deft cost controls.

China's consumer inflation dipped to 6.1 percent in September, retreating further from three-year highs and easing some concerns about demand in the region a day after data showed the country's trade surplus narrowed.

Standard and Poor's cut Spain's credit rating on Friday, underlining the challenges facing Europe's big powers as they prepare to meet counterparts from the Group of 20 nations over the Eurozone debt crisis.

Investors will look for clues into the health of the U.S. consumer on Friday with data on retail sales and consumer confidence. The Commerce Department releases September retail sales at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT), and economists in a Thomson Reuters survey expect a 0.7 percent rise from a flat reading in August. Excluding automobiles, sales are seen up 0.3 percent compared with a 0.1 percent rise in the prior month.

Also at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT), the Labor Department releases import-export prices for September. Economists expect a 0.3 percent drop in imports and a 0.2 percent rise in exports. In the prior month, import prices fell 0.4 percent and export prices rose 0.5 percent.

At 9:55 a.m. (1355 GMT) the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers releases its preliminary October consumer sentiment index. Economists expect the reading to rise to 60.2 from 59.4 in the final September report.

S&P 500 futures rose 7.8 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 82 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 15 points.

Mattel Inc., the world's largest toy company, reported higher-than-expected quarterly sales, helped by favorable exchange rates and strong sales of its Barbie dolls.

European shares were higher, boosted by better-than-expected results from Google and forecast-beating earnings from Syngenta offsetting weakness in banks as ratings agency actions weighed on the sector.

Asian equity markets were lower on concerns about sluggish global growth after weaker-than-expected China trade data on Thursday.

The Dow and S&P 500 slipped on Thursday after JPMorgan's earnings and China's soft trade data revived worries about the impact of slower growth on profits.

(Editing by Padraic Cassidy)